Secured transactions law reform in Brunei

Back in 2016, Brunei modernised its secured transactions laws as part of its ambition of building a legal framework that can stimulate the development of the Bruneian private sector. Brunei's new legislation, its Secured Transactions Order 2016, followed closely the form of New Zealand's Personal Property Securities Act 1999. The enactment of the STO helped lift Brunei to equal-first ranking, among all the world's economies, on the measure of "Ease of getting credit" in the World Bank's highly-influential Doing Business survey.

Brunei has not stopped there, however. It recognises that establishing a conducive legal framework is only the first step towards achieving effective secured transactions law reform. For this reason, the Monetary Authority of Brunei Darussalam (the AMBD) has been implementing a series of training programs, targeted particularly at financial institutions and the legal profession, to help users to understand the new laws and the opportunities that they provide.

As part of this, I was pleased last week to conduct a series of two-day workshops on behalf of the AMBD and its consultants the Kozolchyk National Law Center, first for the Bruneian judiciary and then for the broader legal profession in Brunei, on the operation of the STO. The strong turnout for both workshops augers well for the success of the reforms.

 Congratulations to the AMBD on having such a strong commitment to the capacity-building phase of its reform project, and for having organised two such successful events.